.TH ALEPH 1 "24 August 2023" "Web2C @VERSION@"
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.\"=====================================================================
.SH NAME
aleph \- extended Unicode TeX
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B aleph
.RI [ options ]
.RI [ \fB&\fPformat ]
.RI [ file | \fB\e\fPcommands ]
.\"=====================================================================
.SH DESCRIPTION
Run the Aleph typesetter on
.IR file ,
usually creating
.IR file.dvi .
If the file argument has no extension, ".tex" will be appended to it. 
Instead of a filename, a set of Aleph commands can be given, the first
of which must start with a backslash.
With a 
.BI & format
argument Aleph uses a different set of precompiled commands,
contained in
.IR format\fB.fmt\fP ;
it is usually better to use the
.B -fmt
.I format
option instead.
.PP
Aleph is a version of the \*(TX program modified for multilingual
typesetting.  It uses Unicode, and has additional primitives for
(among other things) bidirectional typesetting.
.PP
Aleph's command line options are similar to those of \*(TX.
.PP
Aleph is no longer being actively developed; see LuaTeX for current
activity.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH OPTIONS
Run aleph --help to see the complete list of options; this is not
exhaustive.
.TP
.BI -cnf-line \ string
Parse
.I string
as a
.I texmf.cnf
configuration line.  See the Kpathsea manual.
.TP
.BI --fmt \ format
Use
.I format
as the name of the format to be used, instead of the name by which
Aleph was called or a
.I %&
line.
.TP
.B --halt-on-error
Exit with an error code when an error is encountered during processing.
.TP
.B --help
Print help message and exit.
.TP
.B --ini
Be `initial' Aleph for dumping formats; this is implicitly true if the
program is called as
.BR inialeph .
.TP
.BI --interaction \ mode
Sets the interaction mode.  The mode can be one of
.IR batchmode ,
.IR nonstopmode ,
.IR scrollmode ,
and
.IR errorstopmode .
The meaning of these modes is the same as that of the corresponding
\ecommands.
.TP
.B --ipc
Send DVI output to a socket as well as the usual output file.  Whether
this option is available is the choice of the installer.
.TP
.B --ipc-start
As
.BR --ipc ,
and starts the server at the other end as well.  Whether this option
is available is the choice of the installer.
.TP
.BI --kpathsea-debug \ bitmask
Sets path searching debugging flags according to the bitmask.  See the
.I Kpathsea
manual for details.
.TP
.BI --maketex \ fmt
Enable
.RI mktex fmt ,
where
.I fmt
must be one of
.I tex
or
.IR tfm .
.TP
.BI --no-maketex \ fmt
Disable
.RI mktex fmt ,
where
.I fmt
must be one of
.I tex
or
.IR tfm .
.TP
.BI --output-comment \ string
Use
.I string
for the DVI file comment instead of the date.
.TP
.BI --output-directory \ directory
Write output files in
.I directory
instead of the current directory.  Look up input files in
.I directory
first, then along the normal search path.
.TP
.B --parse-first-line
If the first line of the main input file begins with
.I %&
parse it to look for a dump name.
.TP
.BI --progname \ name
Pretend to be program
.IR name .
This affects both the format used and the search paths.
.TP
.B --recorder
Enable the filename recorder.  This leaves a trace of the files opened
for input and output in a file with extension
.IR .ofl .
(This option is always on.)
.TP
.B --shell-escape
Enable the
.BI \ewrite18{ command }
construct.  The
.I command
can be any Bourne shell command.  By default, this construct is 
enabled in a restricted mode, for security reasons.
.TP
.B --version
Print version information and exit.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH ENVIRONMENT
See the Kpathsearch library documentation (the `Path specifications'
node) for precise details of how the environment variables are used.
The
.B kpsewhich
utility can be used to query the values of the variables.
.PP
One caveat: In most Aleph formats, you cannot use ~ in a filename you
give directly to Aleph, because ~ is an active character, and hence is
expanded, not taken as part of the filename.  Other programs, such as
\*(MF, do not have this problem.
.PP
.TP
.B TEXMFOUTPUT
Normally, Aleph puts its output files in the current directory.  If
any output file cannot be opened there, it tries to open it in the
directory specified in the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT.
There is no default value for that variable.  For example, if you say
.I tex paper
and the current directory is not writable, if TEXMFOUTPUT has
the value
.IR /tmp ,
Aleph attempts to create
.I /tmp/paper.log
(and
.IR /tmp/paper.dvi ,
if any output is produced.)  TEXMFOUTPUT is also checked for input
files, as \*(TX often generates files that need to be subsequently
read; for input, no suffixes (such as ``.tex'') are added by default,
the input name is simply checked as given.
.TP
.B TEXINPUTS
Search path for
.I \einput
and
.I \eopenin
files.
This should start with ``.'', so
that user files are found before system files.  An empty path
component will be replaced with the paths defined in the
.I texmf.cnf
file.  For example, set TEXINPUTS to ".:/home/user/tex:" to prepend the
current directory and ``/home/user/tex'' to the standard search path.
.TP
.B TEXEDIT
Command template for switching to editor.  The default, usually
.BR vi ,
is set when Aleph is compiled.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH NOTES
This manual page is not meant to be exhaustive.  The complete
documentation for this version of Aleph can be found in the info
manual
.IR "Web2C: A TeX implementation" .
See http://tug/org/web2c.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH BUGS
This version of Aleph implements a number of optional extensions.
In fact, many of these extensions conflict to a greater or lesser
extent with the definition of Aleph.  When such extensions are
enabled, the banner printed when Aleph starts is changed to print
.B Alephk
instead of
.BR Aleph .
.PP
This version of Aleph fails to trap arithmetic overflow when
dimensions are added or subtracted.  Cases where this occurs are rare,
but when it does the generated
.I DVI
file will be invalid.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR tex (1),
.BR mf (1)
.\"=====================================================================
.SH AUTHORS
The primary authors of Aleph are John Plaice and Yannis Haralambous.
